Thoughts are pretty opaque most of the time. Heavy, weighing us down, haunting us. The sitting practice of meditation is to look at all of that stuff right in the face. Our thoughts convince us that this world is solid, but if you look at yesterday and think of tomorrow…if you look at this physical space right now, what is that?

Labels can function to help show us where to look, but when the label slides in front of what is being looked at, you may be fooled by it.

In the Zen tradition, and interview (dokusan) is an opportunity for the student to ask the teacher questions and have discussion about practice, often in a private interview room (hojo). Here Sokuzan is giving open interviews in the zendo.

Don’t attach to words and phrases, but don’t turn away either. You can’t use the teachings to figure this out, you have to see it yourself. If you are on the cushion and you’re sitting still, if you do enough of it, you will see everything you needed to see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzgCBnBLpYI

Sokuzan is using quotes from the teachings of Dogen Zenji to comment on the possibility that Dogen may be incorrect in his teaching. Of course, Sokuzan is only joking but is using that example to further teach about the lack of separation that we so often grasp in our everyday life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9JC-SsFWjc

Listen To Silence

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Lan8OQh6YI

When Thoughts Recycle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltx6eWkhZ3U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWOoDC5OG0U

Wandering Thoughts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2p9M73tIt8

Seeing The Space Around Thought Patterns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0NfIlRGxl0

You may need to fall, just don’t land. Don’t take a position. It is not necessary to conclude anything. Have a willingness to fail, to not be successful so you can begin to understand the bigger picture that the whole idea of success and failure is really about reinforcing a self that needs to be right or industrious or successful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caOm5Fs378g